Promised End - Alexander Goehr

English Touring Opera presents Promised End, a new opera based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, by leading British composer Alexander Goehr. Promised End consists of 24 short scenes, selected, distilled and re-arranged by the composer and by scholar Sir Frank Kermode. The effect is to emphasise one aspect of Shakespeare’s great play: King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, men who in their prime committed errors of judgment, bringing upon themselves their own tragic destinies.

Goehr, a leading composer with a distinguished career in Europe and Asia particularly, has drawn upon a range of influences in creating what he says will be his last opera. He describes the original ‘kernel’ idea as being inspired by Japanese Noh theatre and dance, also citing the influences such as the King Lear film adaptation of Koznitsev (with Shostakovich’s score), Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, and a film by director Miklós Jancsó featuring a Hungarian military band – on which Goehr’s orchestration is partly based.